Serendipity - noun - The occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way


I always tell people- when the subject comes up- that the beginnings of photography- those dim images of people sitting stiffly in their finery- are as close to a time machine as ever we will come. Before these first photographs, we relied on a painter's skill and their interpretation of their subject to render a likeness or a scene. With the photograph, we can see what people and the world really looked like. This is fascinating stuff to me. Over the past few years, I have been researching the daguerreotype, the first practical form of photography introduced to the world in 1839 by Louis Daguerre. As a part of this research, I have perused newspapers in the period of 1839 to about 1861, which brackets the inception of the daguerreotype and its eventual replacement with less technically demanding methods of creating photographs.

Here is the type of thing I hope to find in searching through countless old newspapers- a July, 1854 bilingual advertisement in the Thibodaux Minerva (in English and French, complete with a misspelling of F. Sancan's name) for a daguerrian studio in Thibodaux, Louisiana- a town west of New Orleans, which exists to this day. I happen to know the reason for the misspelling, but that's a subject for another time.

This type of searching is how, very late one night, I came upon something wholly unexpected. It was past two in the morning and I had gotten to a point in looking at small and sometimes poorly printed text, where I could almost not see straight. Determined to at least complete the search of one last page, my eyes fell upon something which, due to my grogginess, took a moment to register, and then as it sank in, I was as wide awake as I would have been if the Lord Himself had grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and plopped me down in a sunlit meadow.

Occupying one very small portion of a newspaper page dense with text in the way papers were in that time period, up in one corner, I saw this. From The Nevada Journal, Nevada City, California, November 27, 1851:



$100 Reward

I will pay the above reward for the arrest and conviction of the thief who stole from my saddle, in Grass Valley, on Monday night last, a Colt's Dragoon pistol, No. 1192 - it was contained in a heavy, black, leather holster, with a broad black belt, double tongued and buckles. Or for any information which may lead to the discovery of the thief and the return of the property, a liberal compensation.

E.W. Roberts, Rough&Ready

The significance of this 172 year old notice will become clear in the particulars of this post, but suffice to say that although I knew I would have to divert for a time from searching for old photography studio advertisements, I had no idea how very much of a diversion- and a delight- this would become.




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The Place



When I saw "Rough&Ready" at the bottom of the notice, it didn't immediately register. I thought perhaps that this was a declaration by the victim of the theft, indicating his desire to get back his property, or perhaps it was a personal motto befitting the place and the time- a mining camp in gold rush-era California.

I attended grade school in a time when American history was still taught in a straightforward manner and upon my waking the following morning, the phrase "Rough and Ready" long buried in my brain emerged from the darkness. Zachary Taylor U.S. Army general in the Mexican-American War and later, President of the United States- Old Rough and Ready, but what had it to do with a newspaper notice seeking to recover stolen property? Less than thirty seconds searching online revealed the answer.

A man by the name of A.A. Townsend was a Wisconsin miner who formed a mining company for the gold rush, embarked to Northern California in April of 1849 and arrived in September of that year. Townsend named his company the "Rough and Ready Company". Townsend had served under Zachary Taylor in the Black Hawk War and honored his former commander with this name.

Hence, the gold rush-era mining camp of "Rough and Ready" was born, north-northeast of Sacramento about fifty miles as the crow flies. Rough and Ready is known today for two things. First, obviously, its unusual name and secondly, for having briefly seceded from the Union in April of 1850.

The Great Republic of Rough and Ready

quote:

By 1850 most of the miners in the area were Southern sympathizers who were opposed to the idea of California becoming a Union state, but they also objected to a government-imposed mining tax on all claims.

On April 7th, 1850, the townspeople signed a Constitution similar to that of the United States, and they elected Colonel E. F. Brundage as President. The Constitution was referred to as Brundage's Manifesto, and read in part: "We deem it necessary and prudential to withdraw from said Territory (of California) and from the United States of America to form, peacefully if we can, forcibly if we must, the Great Republic of Rough and Ready," but the Republic fizzled the following 4th of July when Nevada City saloon owners refused to sell liquor to "foreigners."

Another town meeting was held, and the citizens of the "Great Republic" thirstily decided they wanted to rejoin the Union — immediately — so the world's smallest nation came to an end in slightly less than three months.

Goldrush miners and whiskey go together like, well, goldrush miners and whiskey, and so the Republic was no more. History would have failed us if such an event had been lost to time and today the locals of Rough and Ready mark it each year, capitalizing on its novelty.

At its peak in 1851, Rough and Ready had a population of just shy of a thousand. It exists still today, but only as a parody of itself, whereas neighboring Grass Valley, a mere four miles to the east, has fared much better and has a population of about 13,000.

Digging a bit deeper into the history of Rough and Ready, I found a directory published in 1867: Bean's history and directory of Nevada County, California. It contains an entertaining chapter on Rough and Ready. The author of this chapter was one of the early citizens of the town and knew much of its history. Apparently he was one of the more educated citizens of the town and with his long residency, was selected to tell its story. I'd like to imagine he wrote it by lamplight in his home, with a shot of fine whiskey in him to stimulate his humor and another glass at his elbow, taking puffs off of a good stogie in between dips of his quill in an inkwell.

It seems the editor of the directory asked the author to refrain from going on too long with his story and the author wraps it up in a humorous fashion by going on for a page and a half saying that he hasn't told us about this event and that event and on and on. It's a clever way to tell the story and the end of it is the best:

...robbery of Jack Elder, Constable, caught under his chin and lifted out of his saddle, pistol in hand, by the limb of a tree; nor of the shooting of his partner, Wilson, while stealing a wagon load of barley left on the road; nor of Brundage's mass meeting of the people, called in 1850, to organize the State of Rough and Ready, adopt a constitution, secede from the United States, and set up on our own hook an independent government; nor of the preacher who wanted "a show" when the boys staked off the grave yard into mining claims whilst he was saying the last prayer over the corpse, the prospect having been discovered "rich" in the loose dirt thrown out of the grave; nor of the fight between Smock and a certain limb of the law; nor of the first appearance of Lee & Marshall's Circus, at Rough and Ready, in March, 1851; nor of Fordyce's first contract for carrying the mail from Nevada to Marysville, in 1850, on mule-back; nor of the stage ride in the first Marysville coach, one day to Empire Ranch and all next day to get into Marysville; nor of the grizzly that chased Robinson into Deer Creek, when it was cold enough to freeze the ears off a brass monkey; nor of the first sermon in Rough and Ready, when the "boys" rolled up their monte and faro banks— fifteen tables going— on a Sunday afternoon, listened to an eloquent sermon, preached in the gambling saloon, took up a collection of $200 and presented it to the preacher; nor of the first ball or dance given in our town, where we had six women to two hundred and fifty men, more fights than you could count, and six pistol shots fired through the floor of the ball room from below, nobody hurt; nor of our prospecting trip to Grass Valley after night, blankets, pick and shovel on each man's back, when gold quartz was first discovered on Gold Hill, in October, 1850, and of our getting there at daylight, among the first on the ground, to the chagrin and surprise of the Grass Valleyans, who thought they had it all to themselves. And so on, and so on, through a thousand of wild scenes and strange incidents that would, in this day, sound, perhaps, more like shadows from Baron Munchausen's adventures than sober truth; but you have told me to "cut it short," and you see I have done so.

quote:

..nor of the grizzly that chased Robinson into Deer Creek, when it was cold enough to freeze the ears off a brass monkey; nor of the first sermon in Rough and Ready, when the "boys" rolled up their monte and faro banks— fifteen tables going— on a Sunday afternoon, listened to an eloquent sermon, preached in the gambling saloon, took up a collection of $200 and presented it to the preacher; nor of the first ball or dance given in our town, where we had six women to two hundred and fifty men, more fights than you could count, and six pistol shots fired through the floor of the ball room from below, nobody hurt...

Beautiful

Now, this part rang a bell:

quote:

...nor of the preacher who wanted "a show" when the boys staked off the grave yard into mining claims whilst he was saying the last prayer over the corpse, the prospect having been discovered "rich" in the loose dirt thrown out of the grave...

Where had I heard that before?

Wait a minute.

It couldn't be, could it?

It could and it was:

Paint Your Wagon, a 1969 movie musical about a gold rush-era mining camp starring two men who really should never have sang in public: Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood.





How do you like that? I wonder how Lerner and Lowe (or Paddy Chayefsky) came by the story- whether by word of mouth, or whether someone involved with the original musical or its film adaptation had a copy of Bean's Directory, and I wondered, too, if the story as told by the author in Bean's was actually a fable which he himself had been told, and wove it into the nostalgic past of the town.

This is not the only portion of the Rough and Ready story which appears in the film adaptation of the Lerner and Lowe musical. The ..."first ball or dance given in our town, where we had six women to two hundred and fifty men..." shows up in slightly different form. In Paint Your Wagon the miners get word of and divert a stagecoach- containing six French women- coming from San Francisco and bound for another location. The stagecoach is paraded through the middle of the mining camp with hundreds of miners on either side of the road, cheering wildly. Kinda seals it, don't you think?

Discovering this connection feels like deciphering an ancient manuscript written in a dead language. It is the lore of a unique time in American history, and the tales are funny and not weighted down by names and dates and dry recitation of events as one finds in history books, and if fantasy is mixed in with reality, it seems not only fitting of time and place, but also a requirement.

And what of the author himself? Who was this person? The author of the Rough and Ready segment of Bean's Directory, you will be interested to learn, was none other than E.W. Roberts, owner of the stolen Colt's Dragoon.



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The Person



E.W. Roberts was an attorney who was a leading citizen of Rough and Ready, who came to the town in late 1849 or early 1850. I estimate his date of birth to be no later than about 1824 or 1825, since he had already passed the bar by the time he arrived in the town. Unfortunately, none of the evidence of him I have found indicates what the initials "E.W." stand for. This, along with the commonality of the name 'Roberts' makes genealogical research an uphill battle. He is listed as E.W. in his signature of Brundage's Manifesto and in his ads for his law services.



An 1854 ad in the Nevada Journal:





An ad in the 1867 Bean's Directory, by which time he had moved to Grass Valley; an indication, perhaps, of the decline of Rough and Ready and the growth of Grass Valley:




We do get a brief glimpse of attorney Roberts in the courtroom. In an 1889 article in the The Sacramento Daily Record-Union, an 1853 mining claim trial in the court of Justice John Little in Rough and Ready, Roberts along William Morris Stewart (who would shortly thereafter become California's Attorney General and in 1865, a U.S. Senator for the state of Nevada), represented the plaintiffs. The trial took place in Si Brown's saloon. "It was stipulated in the case," says the article, "as neither party wished to appear mean, that all the liquors imbibed by the Court, jury, parties, lawyers and outsiders, should be charged as costs and abide the result of the suit. The plaintiffs proceeded with their case, and quite liberal use of the resources of the bar was made by all hands."

As the trial evolved, mayhem ensued as all involved- participants and spectators alike- became roaring drunk and the jury was- not surprisingly- unable to render a verdict. A mistrial was declared and the final costs of the trial (which by law were to be paid by the plaintiff) were determined to be $1400, $1200 of which was for liquor.

Helluva town.


Roberts is listed in the roles of The Grass Valley Union Guard formed in 1863, in which he was a captain of Company A, Unattached Infantry, Fourth Brigade.

In a camp full of miners and merchants, E.W. Roberts seems to have stood out with his education and his wit. I would love to know more about him and have him transported to us in our time machine of photography, for here was a man who, along with all else we know about him, had an appreciation for formidable firepower.

And though he would have had no way of knowing it at the time, attorney Roberts was at one time the possessor of what has become an authentic rarity in the world of gun collecting. What was stolen from him on that November night in 1851 was a Whitneyville-Hartford Dragoon, the lineal descendant of the much more widely known (and less rare) Walker Colt.



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The Pistol


When I was a young boy, the libraries of my hometown offered some of the classic books on firearms: Elmer Keith's Sixguns; James Serven's Colt Firearms from 1836; A History of The Colt Revolver by Haven and Belden; William B Edwards' The Story of Colt's Revolver. I devoured these books, checked them out I don't know how many times, and when I got old enough to have my own money, I acquired all of them for my personal library and possess them to this day.

It was James Serven in his book on Colt revolvers who first identified for modern collectors the Whitneyville-Hartford Dragoon, often referred to as the Transition Walker, with a total production of approximately only 240 and of which less than 30 are known to exist today. Contrast this with the Colt Walker with a total production of 1100 revolvers, of which around 165 are known to exist still.

It is the serial number of E.W. Roberts' Colt- 1192- which identifies it as an ultra-rare Whitneyville-Hartford model. I set out to see if 1192 was one of the known extant examples and ended up coming close to acquiring photographs of all known examples. We'll discuss the particulars of these specimens, but first, a thumbnail history of the beginnings of Colt firearms, for those less familiar with the subject.



Samuel Colt started his Patent Arms Manufacturing Company in Paterson, New Jersey in 1836, producing rifles, shotguns and pistols, all using his patented system of rotating chambers utilizing a single barrel. The most significant of these firearms was Colt's Number 5 "Holster" or "Belt" pistol, referred to by the Texas Navy, which acquired 180 of them, as a "Boarding" pistol. In 1844, a portion of these pistols were acquired by Jack Hays of Texas Ranger fame and used in the Ranger's battles against the Comanche Indians in Texas. Samuel Walker was part of Hays' band of Rangers and this is how he came to understand the effectiveness of Colt's invention. Walker also understood that these revolvers, while far more effective at close range than any other firearms available to the Rangers, were much in need of improvement.

Many people familiar with the rudiments of the story are unaware that Colt went out of business in 1842. The business was taken over by John Ehlers, a Colt associate, who assembled Colt firearms from parts remaining in inventory and sold these guns until 1846.


A Colt Paterson Number 5 revolver, .36 caliber, serial number 408, with a 9 inch barrel and square-backed cylinder and no attached loading lever. These are the pistols which Hays and the Texas Rangers used and which subsequently became known as the "Texas Paterson". Total production of approximately 1000 revolvers. These revolvers fired a round ball and generated roughly the same energy as the .380 ACP. The trigger folds down when the hammer is cocked. In order to reload these revolvers, they must be partially disassembled.




When war broke out between the United States and Mexico in 1846, there was a great demand for Colt's revolvers but there were none to be found in quantity. Samuel Colt had gone on to other business ventures, namely, waterproof cabling and ignition systems for underwater mines, and waterproof "cartridges" for pistols and rifles. However, Colt recognized a business opportunity for his revolvers with the start of the Mexican-American War. Most people familiar with the story of the Walker Colt seem to think that Samuel Walker who was by then commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Mounted Rifles division of the army, contacted Sam Colt. Actually, the reverse is true. Colt knew Walker's name and reputation because of Jack Hays and Colt wrote a letter to Walker in November of 1846 when Walker was in Washington, to which he responded immediately and enthusiastically. Thus began a collaboration which improved upon a larger caliber prototype revolver Colt had in the works, resulting in the development and production of the .44 caliber, six shot "Walker" Colt. No longer having a manufacturing facility, Colt contracted with Eli Whitney, Jr to produce the revolver at his Whitneyville plant in Hartford, Connecticut, which was already manufacturing rifles for the government.

Colt's new revolver was intended to fire a 220 grain conical ball, commonly known at that time as a "picket bullet" and the original bullet mold for the Walker cast only this half ounce projectile. When Sam Colt began updating the Walker, he offered bullet molds which cast the 220 grain picket and also a 147 grain round ball. This 147 grain ball when backed by a full 60 grain charge of black powder had a muzzle velocity of 1300 FPS out of the nine inch barrel of the Walker. The 220 grain ball would penetrate six inches of solid hardwood and was effective at more than 100 yards. Until the advent of the .357 Magnum in 1935, the Colt Walker was the most powerful production handgun in the world.

The Walker weighs four pounds nine ounces empty and close to five pounds loaded.

For a variety of reasons, many of the Colt Walkers failed in the field. Many of the soldiers who were issued these pistols had never before handled revolvers. The conical picket bullets were difficult to seat properly so that they were concentric with the bore and therefore, many users chose to load these conical projectiles backwards so that upon firing the flat base was the first thing which entered the short forcing cone of the barrel, creating a pressure spike which sometimes burst cylinders or barrels. The questionable metallurgy of the cylinders and barrels also contributed to these catastrophic failures, as did the 60 grain powder capacity of the chambers, and the chambers actually would accept a slightly larger charge than 60 grains when the picket bullets were loaded base-forward. Inexact machining methods of cylinders and barrels were a contributing factor as well.


In a letter dated May 8, 1848, written to Colonel Taclott, Army Chief of Ordnance, an ordnance captain writing from Vera Cruz in Mexico stated the following:

Sir : Five Companies of discharged Texan rangers have turned in their arms and accoutrements. Agreeably to the statement of Colonel Hays, these men received less than a year ago 280 Colt's patent pistols of which number 191 now revert to the U. States. The remainder chiefly bursted in their hands—tho a few were lost in skirmishing with the enemy. Of the 191 turned in only 82 can be considered serviceable. All of the others have been more or less damaged by firing, and the wear and tear of some eight months use in the field. In some cases the cylinders are entirely destroyed— in others the barrels are irreparably injured where they join the cylinder— and again, having bursted at the muzzle, the barrels have been cut off to one half their original length. As the pistols were turned in loaded, in attempting to discharge them the Snaps were found fully equal to the explosions— and in no instance were all the six charges, in any one cylinder, exploded— rarely ever four— frequently but two.

Colonel Hays states that for the first few days after his men received these arms they were continually bursting— but that, eventually, those which were left were fired with less certainty of such a result. This being probably the first experiment of these pistols in actual service, I consider it worth while to commit the foregoing to paper.

I am respectfully,
Yr. Obt. St.
Jno. Williamson
Capt. Ordnance



The "Snaps" referred to are the percussion caps and the captain is saying that many of the revolvers were turned in with loaded chambers because these revolvers would no longer fire, even with percussion caps proven reliable and of sufficient strength to ignite the powder in the chambers. This seems to indicate that the nipples were clogged, likely by black powder residue, but also possibly with rust or the fine dust of the North Mexican desert. This is a maintenance issue but of course has nothing to do with catastrophic failures of a good number of these revolvers.

A further deficiency of the huge Colt was the weak retaining spring for the attached loading lever. Under recoil and the pronounced muzzle flip of the powerful Walker, the loading lever frequently would fall down, sometimes to the point that the cylinder of the revolver would not rotate when attempting to cock the hammer for the next shot.

Because of these deficiencies and the near five pound weight of a loaded Colt Walker, these revolvers were, like the antecedent Texas Patersons, shy of being considered practical repeating handguns. Colt would would begin the remedial process of addressing these issues, resulting in the Whitneyville-Hartford Dragoon, which I consider to be the first practical repeating handgun.

At least publicly, Sam Colt denied that the issues of bursting barrels and cylinders in the Walker were attributable to the design or manufacture of his revolvers. Colt felt that Colonel Talcott and his Ordnance Department were against the use of his revolvers and claimed that the bursting cylinders were due to the proving process employed by the Ordnace Department in Vera Cruz.

In a letter dated January 1, 1848 to General John Thomson Mason, a Colt agent who was in the process of lobbying the Navy Department for a contract for Colt's revolvers, Colt stated "I have heard of their bursting, yet it may possibly have happened that some of the cylinders have broken, the cause for which may readily be traced to the unreasonable strain put upon them by the Ordnance Department in their proof, which is enough to burst a six-pounder."

Whether or not Colt realized the truth of the matter which is borne out in the letter from Captain Williamson to Colonel Talcott, we cannot know, but the situation remedied itself in one of the primary changes from the Colt Walker to the Whitneyville-Hartford Dragoon.

As with much of the story of early development in Colt firearms, the reason behind Colt's decision to shorten the Walker cylinder is, I believe, misunderstood. The common belief is that Colt did this in order to reduce the maximum allowable powder charge from 60 grains to 50 grains, thus lessening the likelihood of burst cylinders. This reduced capacity, along with better metallurgy in revolvers after the Walker, did result in a dramatic reduction in the number of burst cylinders, but it appears Colt's primary if not only reason for shortening the cylinder, was as a means of reducing the weight of his revolver. Colt was so determined to find a way to reduce the weight, he actually considered (though only briefly) removing the loading lever from the revolver.

Writing to Colonel Talcott in a letter dated October 4, 1847, Colt says:

Sir : Since making the last thousand of my Patent Repeating Pistols I have made many experiments and have come to the conclusion that some alterations may still be made that will improve the arm for service. Therefore, should it meet your approbation I should like to make the following alterations in the 1000 I am now making for your department. I propose to make the pistols about nine inches in length from the bottom of the chamber to the muzel of the barrel, to make the handle strap and bullet molds of brass in lieu of iron, and to use an iron ram and swab rod in place of the lever atached to the barrel. By these changes the pistols will be reduced in weight about three quarters of a pound and in length to suit the common holsters now in our service.

Very Respy
Sir
Your Obt Servt
Saml Colt

The 1.5 inch reduction in barrel length was apparently a suggestion by the Ordnance Department which, as Colt noted in his letter, would allow his revolvers to fit into "common holsters now in our service."

Ultimately, Colt was able to reduce the weight of his revolver by seven ounces- a not small difference in a handgun being held at arms length. The changes resulted in the subject of this post: the Colt Whitneyville-Hartford Dragoon.




Top- Walker

Bottom- Whitneyville-Hartford Dragoon





In the Whitneyville-Hartford, we see a shortened barrel and shortened cylinder. Because the WH model utilized the Walker frame, the shortened cylinder resulted in a gap in the forward part of the cylinder window. To allow for this, a "nipple" was machined (the WH model used Walker barrels) into the barrel where it meets the chamber mouth. In the Walker, the barrel wedge passes through the barrel lug and arbor right-to-left. In the improved revolver, the wedge passes left-to-right. The latching system for the loading lever was much improved, omitting the weak latching spring (barely visible between the barrel and loading lever just forward of the barrel lug) and replacing it with a latch at the end of the lever. The backstrap of the Walker is iron. The extant WH models show a mixture of brass and iron backstraps. The cylinder of the Walker, the Whitneyville-Hartford, Second Contract and early First Model Dragoons were left in the white. When you see a modern reproduction of a Walker or Whitneyville-Hartford revolver with a blued cylinder, the manufacturer got it wrong.

A feature continued on the WH model (because the WH uses Walker frames) is that the screws for the trigger and cylinder stop bolt do not pass through to the right side of the frame, and this lack of screw holes on the right side of the frame above the trigger is a feature which identifies these transitional model Dragoons.

Also continued on the first variation of the WH model is the cut-back frame of the Walker, where the grips protrude forward slightly into the lower portion of the frame. The trigger guard of the Walker was used as well, with the guard being "swept back" at an angle at the rear of the guard.



Colt's contract with Whitney stated that after the completion of manufacture of the 1000 U.S.M.R. Model of 1847 revolvers for the U.S. Army, Colt was to be allowed to keep all the manufacturing machinery and any leftover parts. In July of 1847 Colt moved the machinery and inventory to Pearl Street in Hartford and there established his new plant. It was there that he completed 100 civilian Colt Walkers exclusive of the Army contract and for his pure profit and manufactured the approximately 240 Whitneyville-Hartford Dragoon revolvers of which attorney Roberts' pistol was one.


Originally I had set out to display in this post, photographs of one or two representative examples of these revolvers, for instance, serial number 1161 which appears in the Walker/WH comparison photo. A little at a time, my curiosity grew and eventually I ended up performing multiple exhaustive searches for these guns, using all available search engines and dozens of search term combinations. I feel as if I have captured all available examples of extant Whitneyville-Hartford Dragoons and now present the results to you, here reproduced under the Fair Use provision of the Copyright Act (no profit incentive / educational purposes only)


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The Whitneyville-Hartford Dragoon

The serial numbers in red indicate pistols which are known to exist but of which I have no photographs. The serial numbers followed with an asterisk are known to exist and are classified as Whitneyville-Hartford Dragoons but fall outside of the established serial number range of 1101 to 1340. The three fakes in this list are marked as such.

1104, 1106(fake but with a real Walker cylinder), 1115 (fake), 1118, 1123, 1129, 1136, 1144, 1146, 1151, 1161, 1166, 1172(fake), 1194, 1195, 1200, 1214, 1215, 1216, 1233, 1245, 1247, 1277, 1291, 1293, 1299, 1318, 1325, 1331, 1337, 1344*, 1427*

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Serial Number 1104



Aside from being the oldest extant Whitneyville-Hartford Dragoon, serial number 1104 has a bit of history. General John T. Mason was lobbying the Navy Department on behalf of Sam Colt, attempting to obtain a Navy contract for Colt's pistol. The Walker Colt was designed for and issued to riflemen who were mounted on horseback (the United States Mounted Rifles). The pistols were issued in pairs and were carried in a pommel holster draped over the front of their saddle. This holster, of course, would be of no use to navy seamen, so General Mason suggested to Colt to install a belt hook on a sample or two and send them to him. In a letter to Colt dated September 21, 1847, Mason wrote "I have an instant order from the Secretary of the Navy that you should make & forward to me as soon as may be one or two pattern pistols for the naval service. ...I should think the army pistols you are now making, or something like it with a hook on the side, to fasten it to the seaman's belt, would answer the purpose... After writing this, Mason thought to add a note to the margin of the letter that "The hook should be on the left side of the pistol...

It's not a bad idea for a smaller pistol such as Colt's 1851 Navy (which had not yet been developed), but in a pistol such as the Whitneyville-Hartford Dragoon, which weighs almost four and a half pounds loaded, holsterless carry is not a practical solution. One of the pistols Colt sent to Mason for examination by the Navy Department may have been serial number 1104. If so, the pistol was returned to Colt, because Colt sent to Senator Thomas J. Rusk of Texas a pistol fitting this description, number 1104.

In a letter dated December 22, 1847 to Rusk, Colt writes "I send you a specimen of my most recently improved Holster pistol. You will discern I have attached a spring belt hook for convenience of carrying them when men are dismounted, and are equally convenient in holsters."

Senator Rusk received the pistol on December 28 and during its firing by Rusk and members of his staff, the barrel burst on the left side and the revolver was then returned to Colt. This fracture is clearly visible in the photograph above. For many years this pistol was part of the Colt Hartford Collection of the Connecticut State Library. At some point in the last few years, the pistol was sold out of the collection and auctioned by Morphy's Auction House.


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Serial Number 1118





Serial Number 1123





Serial numbers 1118 and 1123 represent the most ornate of known extant examples. Sold as a pair, these pistols were presented by citizens of Knox County Ohio to Colonel George Washington Morgan in 1848, for his service during the Mexican-American War. The pistols were ordered through Moore & Baker, 204 Broadway in New York City. In a letter to Colt dated December 13, 1847, a representative of Moore & Baker in New York City stated they had an order for a pair of "9 inch" revolvers.

"...best workmanship & to be silver mounted, the stocks covered entirely over with silver & finished plain, for a long inscription to be engraved upon them. They are for a present to be made to Col. Morgan, Ohio. The gent who orders them is desirous of having them soon as possible, if practibale not later than this day week. The price with box & all the necessary fixtures as near $90 as you can. Have them here by the time if possible."

Naturally, not knowing anything about Samuel Colt's changes to his Dragoon, the buyer was expecting a pair of Walker revolvers, but instead received the improved Whitneyville-Hartford model. This pair of pistols is silver plated and their grips are covered in silver; "silver chased" is the term. Apparently, Moore & Baker had a silversmith in New York inscribe the stocks. On the left side of each grip is engraved "Presented by the Citizens of Knox County Ohio to Col George Washington Morgan for his gallantry & high Military bearing on the Fields of San Francisco & Marin Feb. 26th, 1847 and Churubusco Aug. 19th & 20th, 1847"





On the backstrap of each pistol is engraved "Honor To The Brave"

Note that these two pistols are absent the normal backstrap. The grips and backstrap are all one piece. You can see a fine seam at the back of the grips where they were joined together.





This pair of pistols does not bear the standard address marking on the top of the barrel. In the left image, you see the normal barrel address, the one which appeared on all Walker Colts: ADDRESS SAML COLT, NEW-YORK CITY This is serial number 1161, which is shown above in the Walker / Whitneyville-Hartford comparison image. It's been determined that the address was re-engraved some time in the past to refresh a worn marking or this barrel was unmarked when it left the Colt factory and a collector/owner felt that having the un-marked barrel marked with the standard address would enhance the value of their revolver. Flayderman's Guide indicates that some of the extant examples of the Whitneyville-Hartford Dragoon have unmarked barrels.

On the right, you see the barrel address for serial number 1123 with COLTS PATENT in an oval. This stamping also appears on the right side of the frame of 1118 and 1123. This stamping appeared on the left side of the frames of the civilian Walkers, 1001 to 1100.

I wondered why the barrel address on this pair, 1118 and 1123 would be different than all other known examples. Like a great many things about The Walker Colts and other early Colt pistols, we are left to speculate. I've given it some thought and I wonder if these two pistols have non-standard barrel addresses because they were requested as a rush job, as indicated in the letter from Moore & Baker to Colt, and therefore the barrels were pulled from inventory without yet having been marked with the normal address. Notice that in the standard barrel address, some of the characters are slightly higher or lower than adjacent characters, indicating that the characters were stamped individually; some thirty or so characters. The COLTS PATENT address would have been quicker to stamp, and it may have even been stamped using a single die. This is purely a guess, though.




The oval COLT'S PATENT stamping appears also on the Walker bullet molds, both the single ball mold and the six ball "gang" mold

After Colonel Washington's death in 1893, his widow donated this pair of revolvers to the Smithsonian Institution, and today they are in the possession of The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center, a division of the Smithsonian.


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Serial Number 1129




The saddest of the lot. Extensively reworked, parts replaced, and an old refinish. I find this revolver hard to look at.


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Serial Number 1136




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Serial Number 1144




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Serial Number 1151




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Serial Number 1161





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Serial Number 1166




Presented by Samuel Colt in November, 1847 to legendary Texas Ranger Jack Hays, serial number 1166 represents the only known extant example of a cased Whitneyville-Hartford Dragoon.

The backstrap is engraved in presentation to Hays and at the top of the backstrap just behind the hammer, a star is engraved, along with the word "Texas"





A few years back, this cased set sold at auction for $453,000. This pales, though, at the single most expensive handgun auction ever: the only known cased civilian Walker Colt- known as the "Danish Sea Captain's Walker" which sold for a record 1.84 million dollars. These figures should give you an idea of how truly rare and treasured by collectors are these guns.



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Serial Number 1194



Serial number 1194 represents the closest we come to E.W. Roberts pistol, 1192, and hints perhaps at what Roberts' revolver looked like. Note on this pistol an iron backstrap of the Walker Colt.



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Serial Number 1195



With serial number 1195, we see the first appearance of the second variation of the Whitneyville-Hartford Dragoon, with what is known as the straight-back frame; the grips do not protrude into the lower portion of the rear of the frame. You will see, however, that the cut-back frame reappears in at least one WH example which has a serial number higher than 1195.

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Serial Number 1200



On this revolver, note the different grip shape and that the butt is angled down slightly. This is due to variations in trigger guards and backstraps seen on some of the early Colt Dragoons. I've yet to find an explanation for the varying shape of these parts and frankly, I don't think anyone really knows why.



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Serial Number 1214




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Serial Number 1215




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Serial Number 1216




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Serial Number 1226




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Serial Number 1247




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Serial Number 1293




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Serial Number 1299




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Serial Number 1325



Serial number 1325 is numbered near the end of the range typically cited for the Whitneyville-Hartford Dragoons, which is 1340. This may account for the fact that this revolver lacks the swept-back trigger guard and gives all the appearances of a Second Contract (and First Model) Dragoon. It could be that this revolver was period-reworked by the Colt factory, accounting for the seemingly out of place trigger guard. The gun does give some indications of perhaps being refinished. Again, though, since the serial number is so near the end of WH production, it may be that this revolver is one of the first to display the trigger guard of the next model to appear, the Second Contract Dragoon.


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Serial Number 1331




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Serial Number 1337



Now, here is a revolver that has seen the elephant. Presented by Sam Colt to Ben McCulloch, Texas Ranger who fought the Comanches alongside Jack Hays and who served in the Mexican-American War and as a general in the Confederate Army in the Civil War. The backstrap is engraved "Presented by Sam Colt to Maj. Ben McCulloch, January 1, 1848" and at the base of the hammer is engraved the word "Free" along with a wild horse and a cactus- a reference to the Texas Ranger motto "Free as the breeze / Swift as a mustang / Tough as a cactus"

McCulloch was killed at the Battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas in March 1862 and had this pistol among his possessions at that time, but the pistol disappeared after his death. Thirteen years later, in 1875, Charles Garvin, a guard for a survey party working on the Texas and Pacific railroad near Big Spring, Texas, shot an indian. In the indian's satchel was McCulloch's revolver.


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Fakes


Serial Number 1106





This revolver is in the possession of the NRA Museum and they have identified it as a fake, but they say it's a fake First Model Dragoon, even though it shows clear characteristics of the Whitneyville-Hartford Dragoon, plus it wears an actual Walker/WH cylinder, so we know that WH serial number 1106 is no longer in one piece, if any of the rest of it exists at all. I'm guessing the revolver is perhaps stamped with a serial number on other parts, which indicate they came from a First Model Dragoon, but the only serial number they talk about is 1106. Go figure. I would hope for better from a place like the NRA Museum.

On the right side is a photograph of a First Model Dragoon. On the left is 1106 and it shows clear characteristics of a Whitneyville-Hartford Dragoon: cut-back frame, swept-back trigger guard, iron backstrap (the WH models had a mixture of either brass or iron backstraps, whereas the First Model all have brass backstraps), the frame shows the COLTS PATENT marking in an oval and the trigger and cylinder stop bolt screws do not pass through to the right side of the frame



An excellent fake, by the way, done up by someone who knows much about the characteristics of the WH Dragoon.

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Serial Number 1115




Another excellent fake, with inspector and sub-inspector markings on the trigger guard which are supposed to lead you to believe that it came off of a military-issued Walker.
The cylinder stop cuts in the cylinder give it away. There is quite a variance in these cylinder cuts in the Walker, Whitneyville-Hartford, Second Contract and First Model Dragoons, but these cuts in modern reproductions of early Dragoons and Walkers are, of course, CNC uniform, and for the sake of safety on the modern reproductions, these cuts are not oval as in the originals; they are elliptical, with flats on the bearing surfaces. They have flat bottoms, too. These cuts are made with a circular cutter which cuts to depth, then passes laterally to create the ellipse with flat sides.

On the right is a modern repro of a WH Dragoon, a Colt Black Powder Series revolver. On the left is the fake 1115. The faker has done a good job of peening the cuts to disguise their uniformity, but I see through it.




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Serial Number 1172


This one is so fake, even the seller admitted it: Uniform, flat-bottomed. elliptical cylinder stop cuts, and a uniform antique finish, not to mention a case. No way.





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Second Contract Dragoon


What came after the Whitneyville-Hartford Dragoon? The First Model Dragoon, yes? No. In November, 1847, Colt was granted his second military contract for a thousand revolvers and they are known today, not surprisingly, as Second Contract Dragoons, which were assigned serial numbers from 2000 to 3000. These revolvers, manufactured in 1848, saw most of their use with the U.S. Army in the far West, and many of these revolvers were stolen by troops who deserted to travel to the gold fields of California during the gold rush. These would be considered pre-First Model revolvers. After the completion of this contract, Colt then picked up the serial number range back at 1340 and ran it to 2000 for the First Model Dragoons, and then picked up the serial range at 3000 for more of the First Model.


Serial Number 2792






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First Model Dragoon


This is a very early First Model Dragoon, and a well-documented one at that. Produced in 1849, this revolver was the property of Major J.C. Bassett of the U.S. Mounted Rifles. J.C. Bassett enlisted in Co G. 6th Michigan Infantry at Organization as a Captain on June 19, 1861. He was 30 years old, and commissioned Major of the 73rd U.S. Colored Troops. Bassett was killed in battle May 8, 1864. The backstrap is inscribed Major J.C. Bassett Mounted Rifles US of A.


Serial Number 1423










Broadly, for the bulk of production, the Dragoon models can be distinguished by the following characteristics:

First Model Dragoon: Oval cylinder stop cuts and squarebacked trigger guard

Second Model Dragoon: Rectangular cylinder stop cuts and squarebacked trigger guard

Third Model Dragoon: Rectangular cylinder stop cuts and round trigger guard



Chronology:

1847 - Walkers, military, issued during the Mexican-American War to five companies of the U.S. Mounted Rifles

Company A 1 - 220

Company B 1 - 220

Company C 1 - 220

Company D 1 - 220

Company E 1 - 120 (1000 pistols)

1847 - Walkers, civilian - 1001 to 1100

1847 - Whitneyville-Hartford Dragoons - 1101 to 1340

1848 - Second Contract Dragoons - 20001 to 3000

1849 - First Model Dragoons - 1340 to 2000 and 3000 to 7000

1850 - 7000 to 9500 (end of First Model production at approx. serial number 8000; beginning of Second Model production)

1851 - 9500 to 10700 (end of Second Model production at approx. serial number 10700; beginning of Third Model production at 10200 with overlap with Second Model)

1852 - 10700 to 12000 (Third Model production to the end of the series)

1853 - 12000 to 13500 and Hartford-London Dragoons (Third Model) 1 to 700 (separate serial number series, produced 1853 to 1857)

1854 - 13500 to 14000

1855 - 14000 to 15500

1856 - 15500 to 16200

1857 - 16200 to 16500

1858 - 16500 to 18000

1859 - 18000 to 18500

1860 - 18500 to 19000

1861 - 19000 - 19800

Approximate total Walker and Dragoon production 1847 to 1861, all models: 20,000


So, there you have it, and it all started with a tiny notice in an old newspaper. I wonder what E.W. Roberts would think of all this. Certainly, he would marvel at the small fortune his stolen revolver would bring today. Did he ever get back his property? I'm guessing not, and I'm also guessing that the gun fell apart or exploded or was thrown away long ago, but if ever it should be found in an old barn or attic, I have prepared a foundation of its history. To my knowledge, neither this particular Dragoon or its reward notice has ever garnered any attention among modern collectors and I feel privileged to have found it and to have dredged up these ghosts, these shadows of people and events of long ago.

There is a repaired cylinder Walker up the road from me at Mr. Adams' house.
It had a piece dovetailed into a crack rendering the chamber dead.

holy shit dude.
that's a helluva write up.
very interesting stuff.

Great information. Speaking of "Paint Your Wagon", it's hard to believe that Clint Eastwood is pushing 93. Had the chance to pick up one of the Colt Black Powder Series Dragoons a couple of years ago but went for the comparatively svelte 1860 Army instead.

Great history lesson.

Thanks Para.

I enjoyed all of that.

Fascinating stuff Para. You might consider sending that to Colt. They might be interested in your research.

Amazing article and photos you have compiled. Thank you.

I feel lucky that I got to explore so many of those old gold rush towns the last 30 years living only an hour or so from the gold country. It would be absolutely wild if Mr Roberts’ Colt was ever discovered.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ElToro,

A+! Not only is your post most informative, it is timely in that I recently purchased an Uberti Dragoon replica revolver. Your research provides historical context to a period of revolver development of which many enthusiasts (myself included) may be unfamiliar. Thank you for sharing.

Uberti 1848 Third Model Dragoon replica revolver.

Excellent write up.


.

Fascinating! Thanks

I have always enjoyed learning about the history of most everything, from the people in the Bible, in various periods in our country and others and especially learning about firearms(we often have heard someone say, "If only that old gun could talk...").

You hit it out of the park with this post.

Bob

Awesome write-up that clearly took an immense amount of research. How cool would it be if 1192 turned up somewhere someday in a manner that at least parts of it's story could be put together!

quote:

Awesome write-up that clearly took an immense amount of research.

Very cool. I learned a lot from this. Thanks, Para.

Great detective work and writeup. I'm only about half way through but wanted to note one thing before I forget.

I recall the Republic of Rough and Ready from the "Death Valley Days" episode entitled, you guessed it, "Rough and Ready." For a show based on history, they played with actual events a lot more than they should have for "view interest" but the basic idea in this case was there. It included Colonel Brundage, of course, but in looking through the townspeople portrayed in the episode (per imdb.com) is a Hans Roberts. I wonder if they saw his signature on the manifesto, couldn't figure out what E.W. stood for, and just assigned a name (they frequently changed from the historical name on that show).

Looking forward to reading the rest.

quote:

Originally posted by StarTraveler:
It included Colonel Brundage, of course, but in looking through the townspeople portrayed in the episode (per imdb.com) is a Hans Roberts. I wonder if they saw his signature on the manifesto, couldn't figure out what E.W. stood for, and just assigned a name (they frequently changed from the historical name on that show).

Hans Roberts was an actual person and is listed on the Brundage Manifesto as a witness: "Hans Q. Roberts, Justice of the Peace"

A friend had one which he had paid $2 or $3k in 1967. I don't remember what model but it was mounted in a picture frame hanging on the wall.

One night of out drinking, he returned home with someone he met at the bar. That morning he woke up to find the Dragoon pistol and individual gone.

He went looking for them and saw him several blocks away. He called me and I helped him look for the individual. Turned out that the individual had thrown the pistol in some bushes in the back yard where the owners were eating breakfast. At the time they thought it was a murder weapon.

Famous outlaw Tiburcio Vasquez 2nd model #9381. He’s buried in the mission Santa Clara cemetery about 100 yards or so from a very dear friend of mine is interred.

Serial number 1194 is for sale at Collectors Firearms on their website
Danny Clark loves them
You might contact them with your research
He owns Collectors Firearms
I worked there for 8 years